Feeding and stacking machine



April 1930. L. L. MATLI'HEWS 1,752,648

FEEDING AND STACKING MACHINE Filed Aug. 28, 1928 Patented Apr. 1, 1930 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE LOUIS L. MATTHEWS, OI WESTEBLY, RHODE ISLAND,

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MAISON AND JULIAN W. MAXSON, BOTH F WESTEBLY, RHODE ISLAND rename AND sracxnve macnmn Application filed August 28, 1928. Serial 160. 302,611.

The present invention relates to feeding and stacking machines, and more particularly to machines for feeding and stacking sheet material, like paper.

After a rollof paper has been made in the papcmill, it is usually necessary to cut it up into sheets. This is effected by leading the web to a cutter, which severs it into the desired lengths and feeds the sheets thus produced into a lay-b0 where they become stacked. The s eed 0 operation of the machine is limite by the fact that, if the sheets are fed at too high a speed, they have a tendency to buckle and fly about in the lay-boy, preventing proper stacking. The overlapping delivery that is illustrated and described in Letters Patent Nos. 1,541,910 to 1,541,915, granted July 14, 1925, has very efiectively solved this problem. There are, however, cases where an overlapping delivery is not desirable.

A chief object of the present invention, accordingly, is to provide a novel machine for speeding up the operation even when the sheets are fed into the lay-boy singly, or in unit bundles of sheets.

With the above and other objects in view, the invention consists of the improved machine a preferred embodiment of which is hereinafter described, illustrated in the accompanying drawings, and defined in the appended claims.

In the accompanymg drawings, Fig. 1 is a a diagrammatic view of amachine constructed according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention; and Figs. 2 and 3 are fragmentary views, upon a larger scale, of a portion of the machine, showing successive steps in the rocess of delivering the sheets into the layoy.

The invention is illustrated in its preferred form in Fig. 1. Any suitable feed mechanism 1 ma be employed to advance a web 2 of materia like paper, to a rotating cutter 4 which and .the cutters may be dispensed with, and

cooperates with a cutter block 6 tosever the previously cut sheets operated upon directly, as described below. The forward ends or heads of the sheets are successively gripped by and fed between tapes 10 on one side and 16 on the other. It will be understood that the term tape is employed herein in 'a generic sense, and includes within its scope other feeding mechanisms, like belts, cylinders, aprons and the like.

The tapes are driven at a speed somewhat higher than that of the feed mechanism 1 and, therefore, 'at a speed higher than that at which the sheets are delivered to the tapes. The head of each sheet is consequently gripped by the tapes 10 and 16 and the sheet is pulled taut and away from the next-succeeding sheet, leaving a gap (not shown) between each two successive sheets. In this spaced-apart relation, the sheets are received at 52' between the tapes 10 and 16. To facilitate such reception, the tapes 10 are caused to overlap the tapes 16, as shown. The tapes 10 and 16 feed the sheets'singly and in spacedapart relationv into a magazine or lay-boy 18 at a speed so high that they have a tendency 5 to buckle and fly about therein in a manner that would make stacking impossible. The tapes 10 on one side of the sheets and the tapes 16 on the other side restrain the sheets from buckling while traveling at the high speed,,but in the lay-boy, there is no such restraining influence.

According to the present invention, the heads of the sheets are permitted to enter the lay-boy singly (or in small unit bundles) by their own iner ia, at high speed and unrestrained. In order to prevent the sheets from buckling and flying about in the layboy, however, the tail of each sheet, after its 9 head has entered the lay-boy, is engaged to slow down the speed of travel of the sheet.

- Each sheet is thus fed forward further in the lay-boy, butat reduced speed, and its tail is caused to enter the lay-boy at the reduced speed, and to become deposited therein, before the head of the next-following sheet enters the lay-boy. There, a stop 20 actsupon the forward ends or heads of the sheets to forward movement, so

limit their further that the sheets become stacked or piled in the la -boy evenly.

n this manner, the sheets may be advanced to, and stacked evenly in, the lay-boy, without curling or other defects incident to high speed, though the sheets are, in reality, advanced sing by the tapes 10 and 16 at quite a high spee A very sim le machine is, therefore, -provided for fee ing sheets ofmaterial successively past a predetermined point, feeding the sheets away from the point at an increased speed to separate each sheet from the nextfollowing sheet, the increased speed being so high as to make it impracticable to feed the sheets at the said speed directly into the lay-' boy, and then engaging the tail of each sheet after its head has passed a second predetermined point, to cause the sheet to travel at slower speed in the lay-boy, The first predetermined point may, for example, be the point where the cutters are located, and the second predetermined point the point 54 at which the tapes 10 and 16 separate.

According to the preferred embodiment of the invention, the tail of each sheet, after its head has entered the lay-boy, is engaged by two cooperating, combined gripping and feeding means, one acting oneach side of the tail of the sheet. The two means are normally separated from each other to permit I the head of the sheet to enter the lay-boy, but

they become actuated towards each other immediately thereafter to engage the tail of the sheet, on opposite sides thereof, and move forward .together, at slower speed, to slow down further travel of the sheet in the laybo One of the two means comprises a rubber-covered, rotary cam 67 that is fixed to a spindle 69 that is rotated in any wellknown manner in timed relation to the feed of the machine, preferabl by connecting the spindle 69 by a sproc et chain 70 to the knife 4. The other means is a loose roller 71, disposed between the forward roll 30 of the tapes 16 and the lay-boy 18, directly under the spindle .69. The cam is so timed as to engage the tail of each sheet against the roll 71, in the manner shown in Fig. 2. The cam 67 and the roll 71 continue rotating in the directions of the arrows of Figs. 2 and 3, but

at the said lower s eed, until the sheet is deposited in the layoy, as illustrated in Fig. 3. For obvious reasons, the cam surface 67 should be in the form of a portion of a cylinder or roll.

The tapes 10 are mounted over rolls 33 and 35. The roll 35 is loosely mounted over the spindle 69, the other roll 33 being positively driven to drive the tapes 10.

The same difficulties that are met with in present-day methods and machines when it is attempted to feed and stacksingle sheets at high speed are encountered when it is-attempted to operate upon small bundles of sheets, particularly if the sheets be constituted of very light or thin paper, or paper that is not stifi from other causes. The present invention, obviously, is as applicable to the feeding and stacking of bundles of sheets as to single sheets. Although, for concreteness, therefore, the term sheet is employed in the claims, it is to be understood that the term is intended to embrace within its scope not only a single sheet, but a unit which may be constituted of a single sheet or of a bundle of sheets. It is desired that the claims be broadly construed, except in so far as it ma be necessary to impose limitations in view 0 the state of the prior art.

What is claimed is:

1. A machine for feeding sheet material into a lay-boy and stacking the sheets therein having, in combination, means for feeding the material past a predetermined point, means for feeding the sheets away from the point at increased s eed to separate each sheet from the nextollowing sheet and so as to feed the sheets singly and unrestrained into the lay-boy at a speed so high that the sheets have a tendency to buckle and fly about therein, and a roll cam for slowing down the speed of travel of each sheet in the lay-boy after the head has entered the lay-boy and for feeding the tail of the sheet into the layboy before the head of the next-following sheet has entered the lay-boy.

2. A sheet-feeding machine having, in combination, means for feeding sheet material past a predetermined oint, means for feeding the sheets away rom the point at increased speed to separate each sheet from the next-following sheet, and a freely rotatable roll cam for engaging the tail of each sheet after its head has passed a second predetermined point to cause the sheet to travel at slower speed.

3. A machine for feedin sheet material into a lay-boy and stacking t e sheets therein having, in combination, means for feeding the material pasta predetermined point, means for feeding the sheets away from the point and into the lay-boy at increased speed to separate each sheet from the next-following sheet, and a roll cam for engaging the tail of each sheet after its head has entered the lay-boy to slow down the speed of travel of each sheet in the lay-boy.

4. A machine for feeding sheet material into a lay-boy and stacking the sheets therein having, in combination, means for feeding the material past a predetermined point, means for pulling upon the head of each sheet after it has passed the point to feed the sheet away from the point at increased speed, means whereby the head of each sheet is caused to travel by its inertia into the layboy, and a roll cam for engaging the tail of each sheet after its head has entered the laytreaties the sheets into thelay-hoy, two cooperating ineans for engaging the tail of each sheet after its head has entered the lay-boy and slow down the speed of travel of the sheet in the lay-boy, and means for rendering the two cooperating means ineflective to engage the sheet at the time that the head of the sheet is entering the lay-boy, one of the said two means comprising a roll earn.

6. A machine for feeding sheet material into a lay-boy and stacking the sheets therein having, in combination, means for feeding the sheets into the lay-boy, two cooperating means for engaging the tail of each sheet after its head has entered the lay-b0 and means for first relatively separating t e two engaging means so as to render them inefi'ective to engage the material to feed it and then relatively actuating them towards each other so as to render them effective to engage the material and feed it, whereby the first-named means is enabled to feed the material between the two engaging means when they are separated, one of the two on aging means comprisin a roll cam operab e at a speed slower than t e speed of travel of the head of the sheet into the la -boy and movable into engagement with t e tail of the sheet after the head of the sheet has entered the lay-boy.

7. A machine for feedin sheet material into a lay-boyand stacking t e sheets therein having, in combination means; for feeding each sheet into the lay-boy, and a roll cam for engaging the tail of each sheet after its head has entered the lay-boy to slow down the speed of travel of the sheet in the lay-boy.

8. A machine for feedin sheet material into a lay-boy and stacking t e sheets therein having; in combination, means for feeding each s eet into the lay-boy unrestrained at a speed so high that the sheet has a tendency to uckle and fly about therein, and a roll cam for engaging the tail of each sheet after its head has entered the lay-boy unrestrainedto slow down the speed of travelof the sheet in the lay-boy.

9. A machine for feedin sheet material into alay-boy and stacking t e sheetstherein havin in combination, means for feedin each s eet into the lay-boy at a speed so liig that the sheet has a tendency to buckle and fly about therein, means for causing each sheet to travel unrestrained into the lay-boy, two cooperating means for engaging the tail of each sheet after its head has entered the lay-boy unrestrained, and means for first relatively separating the two engaging means so as to render them inefiective to engage the material to feed it at the time that the head of the sheet is entering the lay-boy and then relatively actuating themtowards each other so as to render them effective to engage the tail of the sheet and feed it, whereby the firstnamed means is enabled to feed the material into the lay-boy unrestrained between the two engaging means when they are separated,

one of the two engaging means comprising a roll cam operable at a speed slower than the speed of travel of the head of the sheet into the lay-boy and movable into engagement with the tail of the sheet after the head of the sheet has entered the lay-b0 10. A machine forv feedin s eets of material and stackin them in a ay-boy having, in combination, eed means for engaging each sheet on both sides of the sheet, means for driving the feed means at a speed so high that,-if the whole sheet were delivered by the feed means at the said high speed singly and unrestrained into the lay-boy, it would have a tendency to buckle and fly about therein, the feed means restraining the sheets from buckling and flying about before the sheets enter the lay-boy, but delivering the head of each sheet singly and unrestrained into the lay-b0 and a roll cam for engaging the tail of eac sheet, after its head has entered the lay-boy unrestrained, to slow down the speed of travel of the sheet in the lay-boy.

11. A machine for feedin sheets of material and stacking them in a ay-boy havin but delivering the head of each sheet sing y and unrestramed into the lay-boy, two cooperating surfaces being disposed between the tapes and the lay-boy, the said surfaces being normally separated to permit the headof the sheet to enter freely therebetween during its passage from the tapes into the layboy, one of the surfaces comprising a roll cam and means for relatively actuating the cooperating surfaces towards each other to engage opposite sides of the tail of each sheet,

have a tendency to v after its head has entered the lay-boy unrestrained, to slow down the speed of travel of the sheet in the lay-bofy.

In testimony whereo I have hereunto subscribed my name.

LOUIS L. MATTHEWS. 

